If Catfish Had Nine Lives (Country Cooking School Mystery)

by Paige Shelton

  “Hi, Betts.”

  “Hi,” I said as Joe and I came through and joined her at the back corner of the space. It wasn’t huge, only about twenty by thirty feet. “How’s it going?”

  “Great,” she said, but much less enthusiastically than if she meant it.

  “Needed a break from the crowd?” I fished.

  “Something like that.” She shrugged. “This seemed like a good place to get away for a second.”

  “And learn something about what one of your ancestors was a part of.”

  “Uh-huh,” she said absently.

  “Esther, is something wrong? Is there something I can help with?” I asked, wondering if the station itself had been the cause of her melancholy. Maybe Joe’s too?

  I sensed him standing behind me. He sniffed. There was something off-putting about the sound. It wasn’t the sniff so much as its tone, if such a thing was possible. I pretended to itch my earlobe so I could turn to see him. He was very transparent as he stood directly in the glow of a small ceiling spotlight. He seemed curious but not bothered.

  “No, I’m really fine,” Esther said, again not convincingly. She forced a brief smile. “I hope it was okay to tell you the things I told you earlier.”

  “Yes, it was, Esther. You don’t need to worry about that.”

  She nodded and smiled briefly again. “You know, I have enjoyed getting to know your friend Jake over these last few days. He’s a sweetheart.”

  “Yes, he is.” I smiled. “I think he’s enjoying getting to know you, too.”

  “They’d be a perfect couple, Betts,” Joe said. “Her, being a descendant of Astin Reagal, and him all about the history. They’d be perfect. Tell her.”

  I itched my earlobe again, this time as I furrowed my eyebrows. I wasn’t going to say any such thing. Usually as time went on, I began to understand the ghosts better and better. My understanding of Joe was going the other direction. He was just becoming more of a mystery. I wanted to know why he thought they’d be so perfect together and why he cared, why he’d even paid attention to Jake and Esther, but I’d have to save that question for later.

  Joe saw my disagreement and frowned.

  “I’m glad, but you know our friendship won’t have much opportunity to blossom,” Esther said.

  “Kansas City isn’t far. At least it’s in the same state.” I shrugged.

  “Probably too far to really have much of a relationship,” she said.

  Was she sad about the lack of a real future with Jake, or was there something else going on?

  “Forgive me, Esther, but I sense that there’s something else wrong. Can I help?”

  I was sure she wasn’t aware of the fact that she patted one of the front pockets of her jeans. It was a quick maneuver. I thought it might be the pocket with the badge.

  “I’m fine, Betts. I don’t know. I guess that thinking about my ancestor has brought a lot of family stuff to the front of my mind. The thoughts require some attention.” She smiled at me.

  “I understand.” I didn’t; it just seemed like the right thing to say.

  “Betts, ask her if she’s found out more about Astin,” Joe said. “Maybe your friend Jake has found some information that you haven’t heard yet. Ask, please.”

  I couldn’t think of a reason why not. I said, “Have you and Jake found more about Astin?”

  “No, nothing new about Astin, but about some other family members, maybe.”

  “Oh?” I said.

  Unfortunately, my question didn’t get explored further. From inside the station, we could hear the crowd outside, but it was a muffled version. It still wasn’t a rowdy group, as the volume of laughter and conversation continually rose and fell. But there was suddenly one distinct sound that stood out from the crowd noise and made us all jump and gasp. A gunshot cracked and boomed.

  “Was that . . ?” Esther asked.

  “I think so,” I said. “Listen, Esther, stay here a minute.”

  I hoped she’d do as I asked but I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. I wasn’t about to follow my own advice. I hurried around the ghost and then threw myself out the door.

  And someone lots stronger than me stopped me in my tracks.

  Chapter 21

  “Hang on, Isabelle,” Jerome said as his arm barricaded me from moving forward.

  The air released from my lungs with an oomph sound. If it hadn’t been so dark, I didn’t think he would have been solid enough to stop me. But considering what I thought had happened by the river, maybe he would have.

  “Jerome,” I said with the breath I had left. “What’s going on? Was someone shot?”

  It was difficult to understand what we were seeing over at the campsite. Tents and trailers and the stage blocked most of the activity; so did small groups of people. But almost everyone was looking only one direction—toward the center of the site.

  “I don’t know. Let me find out. I just got here,” Jerome said as he released my arm. When he was certain I wasn’t going to run away, he said, “I was out searching for Astin. It was as if I heard a gunshot from far away and then I was suddenly here. I had no idea what happened, but when you came out the door I figured I was supposed to stop you from rushing over there.”

  “Maybe you really are here to protect me.” I didn’t point out that showing up after the gunshot and not before might have meant he needed to take his job a little more seriously.

  “Maybe. Just stay put a second. Let me find out. I’ll be right back,” he said before he disappeared.

  I looked inside the station. Even with the commotion, Joe hadn’t left Esther’s side. She was leaning against an informational podium and biting worriedly at a fingernail.

  I took a deep breath to hide my own concern and opened the door.

  “Come on out if you want to,” I said. “I don’t know what happened yet, but I think we’re okay if we stay by the station until we get some details.” If a gun or something else was aimed my direction, Jerome would appear again and throw me to the ground. Hopefully. And I’d pull Esther with me. I looked back to the campsite and told myself to stay aware.

  Esther joined me outside, and Joe followed behind. He came through the door and then strode to the horse, who’d been standing by the side of the building. I hadn’t looked closely at the horse yet tonight, but I did now. Its brown eyes locked on mine. We stared at each other a moment, but I still had no idea what it was trying to tell me.

  “Was a gun fired?” Esther said.

  “Sounded like it, but you have to understand, that noise happens lots around Broken Rope.” Though I’d heard fake shots, blanks, so many times over the years, I thought I recognized their pops over the louder, real gunshots. What we’d heard sounded more like a real gun.

  “Oh, that makes sense,” Esther said, though she didn’t seem much less concerned. “But after what happened to Norman, at the show. Well, booms or pops or whatever might scare me forever now.”

  “That’s to be expected.”

  “It was horrible,” she continued. “Really, really terrible.”

  “I’m sure.”

  Esther closed her eyes for a second and then shivered off a chill.

  “You truly didn’t know Norman before the convention?”

  “No,” she said. “I just met him here.”

  “Esther, I was talking to my brother tonight. He’s over there.” I pointed with my head and tried not to think about the fact that he, Cliff, and Gram (and Opie, I supposed) might have all been in the middle of a group where a gun had just been fired. “He mentioned something about you and Vivienne arguing over a letter. Do you remember that?”

  In fact, he couldn’t remember who had been arguing about the letter, but if I had the wrong people, Esther might see a chance to correct me and then give me even more information.

  “Oh. Your brother remembered that?” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I’m not sure that’s exactly what was happening,” she
said.

  “So, what really was happening, then?”

  “Wait!” Joe said.

  I looked at him and shook my head. Of course, Esther couldn’t hear his plea, but if she saw me shake my head, she’d wonder why.

  “It started that very first evening,” she began.

  “No, Betts! Ask her to wait a minute.”

  I wanted to tell Joe to go away, but I just glared at him.

  Esther spoke again, but I couldn’t understand her words because Joe was almost yelling, demanding that I ask Esther to stop.

  I thought as quickly as I could.

  “Hang on, Esther. I’m sorry, but my phone is buzzing.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my completely silent and inactive phone and looked at the screen. “Oh, I’ve been waiting for a call from this student. I know this is rude. Could you give me a second?”

  “Sure,” she said hesitantly.

  I walked toward the side of the building where the horse patiently stood. I turned the corner enough so that Esther wouldn’t hear me, but not so far that she’d think I’d abandoned her. Joe joined me.

  I held the phone to my ear.

  “Joe, what’s the problem?” I said quietly.

  “I don’t want her to tell you about the letter. Not yet.”

  “That makes no sense at all. Why?”

  “Because it’s going to make the wrong person look guilty.”

  “So? Why does it matter to you?”

  “It matters.”

  “I couldn’t care less what you want or don’t want me to do.”

  “No, Betts, please just wait. Once the last letter is finished, things will be different.”

  “Different how?”

  “I’m not exactly sure.”

  “Then how do you know?”

  “I do.”

  “What’s the connection?” I glanced back at Esther, smiled, and waved. “Unless you’re Astin Reagal and you are her ancestor. You are Astin Reagal, aren’t you? You’re some weird incarnation. You don’t look like you looked when you were alive. These ghost rules keep changing. That could be it, couldn’t it?” I was talking to both Joe and myself. I was rambling.

  “No, Betts, I’m not Astin Reagal, I promise. My real name is Joe, but there is more to who I really am. It will be solved when we finish the last letter. That’s the only way to understand anything. For any of us to understand anything at all.”

  “Is that the only way to understand what happened to my brother? Is that the only way to understand who killed Norman Bytheway?”

  Joe nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t completely sure.

  “How in the world are we supposed to finish the last letter?”

  “I think that we need to find Astin’s remains, that’s all.”

  “That’s all?”

  “I know. It sounds next to impossible, but I think we’re getting closer. I think your friend Jerome is getting closer.”

  “And yet, you don’t you like him? Why?”

  “I don’t know him, and I’m uncomfortable around those I don’t know.”

  What a strange comment for a ghost to make.

  “Joe—that makes no sense. I’m having a hard time coming up with a logical response to anything you’re saying.”

  Joe shrugged.

  I wanted to question Esther. At that point, I wasn’t even quite sure how to get out of it. Thanks for your willingness to share, but I’m not interested anymore wasn’t going to work. And I really, really wanted to know what she had to say. It didn’t seem right not to find out what she knew. I looked hard at Joe, but I didn’t sense anything. And then the horse nudged my shoulder with his nose. It was when I looked at its brown eyes that I somehow understood the need to wait until the last letter was finished. It was something I’d never comprehend or be able to explain, but those big brown glimmering eyes did me in, and I suddenly got it, whatever “it” was. Or had I been covertly hypnotized?

  “Okay,” I mumbled.

  I was grateful to see Cliff at the edge of the campsite. He waved before he jogged across the path. I put the silent phone back into my pocket and went to join Esther.

  “We’ll talk later,” I said conspiratorially to her.

  “Sounds good,” she said with a note of relief.

  “Hi,” Cliff said as he joined us. “Cliff Sebastian.” He extended his hand to Esther. If she’d talked to any of the police officers before, it must not have been him.

  “Esther Reagal.”

  “You two hear the commotion?” Cliff asked.

  “Yes, is everyone okay?” I asked.

  “Fine. Thankfully, no one was hurt. A real gun with a real bullet was fired, but it didn’t hit anyone.”

  “Whose gun?”

  Cliff shrugged. If he knew, he’d tell me later, when we didn’t have an audience.

  “It’s all taken care of,” he said. “You’re welcome to come on over there if you’d like.”

  Cliff might have thought that Esther and I had run away from the noise. Neither of us offered up that we’d been at the station the whole time.

  “Thank you, and excuse me. I think I will go over and see what’s going on,” Esther said before she scurried off as though she decided she actually didn’t want to tell me about the letter and was glad for the chance to get away.

  “I’ll find you later,” Joe said before he turned to follow Esther. The horse glanced at me with what I interpreted as gratitude and then followed behind its rider.

  “Cliff, what happened?” I asked as they all disappeared into the crowd.

  “One of the convention attendees had a firearm in the glove box of their truck. They claim that they remembered it when they saw one of the police officers tonight. We’d asked everyone to turn in their firearms, of course. The gentleman gathered the gun and was bringing it to the officer. He dropped it accidentally and it fired.”

  “That’s terrible. Disgracefully reckless. Someone else could have easily been hurt or killed.”

  “We know. But we’re grateful that didn’t happen.”

  The chances of another tragedy had been high, too high. I shivered and then shook off some goose bumps.

  “Everyone’s okay, Betts. Let’s go back over,” Cliff said.

  I nodded, and together we followed along the path Esther, Joe, and the horse had just taken.

  All activities had resumed after the interruption, but the first thing I noticed was that Teddy and Opie were still on their lawn chairs and looking toward the stage. If the gunshot had disturbed them, they’d recovered quickly.

  “Those two mend whatever their disagreements were?” Cliff said as he looked their direction too.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “He can make these sorts of decisions without his big sister’s help.” Cliff smiled.

  “Well, his judgment is still up for debate, but you’re probably right.”

  “She’s not so bad. She just doesn’t like you.”

  “That’s your fault, if you remember correctly. If you’d only stayed with her she might not dislike me with so much vehemence.”

  Cliff laughed. “Let’s go see how he’s doing.”

  As we wove our way toward Teddy and Opie, the lighting changed. Someone switched on a stronger spotlight and aimed it at the stage. I looked toward the middle of the crowd and saw Orly on a platform, crouched down on one knee and directing the big light. With his hat pushed back, he again reminded me of Jerome, and I scanned the crowd for the now-missing cowboy, but couldn’t find him.

  “Let’s just sit next to them and watch the show,” Cliff said. “This must be a big one. I told Orly to do something spectacular to take everyone’s minds off the wayward gunshot.”

  Teddy and Opie smiled briefly in our direction as we walked toward them. As we sat on the ground next to them, I noticed that we had a perfect view of the Express station across the way, and I wondered how I hadn’t noticed that the light on the corner of the building had also been illuminated. I rememb
ered the front light, but not that one. I mentally shrugged it off as the show on the stage began. I hadn’t seen this skit, but I’d heard about it. It was politically incorrect, in that it was a battle between cowboys and Indians. Jake had been hesitant to allow the skit to play, but he’d told me that Orly had convinced him that all would be fine. I hoped so.

  But I didn’t get to see enough of the show to judge the crowd’s reaction.

  A snap sounded from toward the station, and my attention swung quickly away from the skit.

  The corner light hadn’t been on, I hadn’t misremembered. There was now illumination, though, but not from a modern light. Lit torches hung high on each corner of the building. I glanced over at Cliff and up at Teddy sitting in the lawn chair to confirm that they couldn’t see the torches. They would have both noticed the fire if it was something real happening in present time. They were both still focused on the show.

  “Cliff, I’ll be right back. Gotta find the lady’s room,” I said quietly.

  “Want me to come with you?” Cliff asked.

  “No, I’m good,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay. I’ll come searching if you’re not back in a few minutes,” he said.

  I kissed him quickly and stood. He smiled and winked at me before I turned and pretended to make a path toward the football stadium and the doors that had been left unlocked for access to the bathrooms.

  Once I knew I’d wound around enough to be out of his sight, I turned and hurried to the edge of the campsite. I couldn’t go directly to the station because Cliff would see me if he happened to look over. He’d wonder what I was up to.

  But I thought I’d be okay watching whatever happened from this distance. Suddenly, Joe rode his horse at lightning speed out of the campsite crowd and toward the station. I was still okay staying put, but when another ghost rider appeared, from the path on the side of the station, it was all I could do not to run across and join them.

  I’d only quickly inspected the picture Jake had found, but I knew the figure whose features were dancing in the torchlight from a hundred and fifty or so years ago was someone Esther would love to talk to. If only she could talk to ghosts.